Possible suspect in Thursday double shooting pronounced dead

Published: Thursday, October 24, 2013 at 12:54 PM.

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Police believe a man who died of a gunshot wound in Greensboro on Thursday afternoon may be a suspect in a double shooting that occurred in Burlington earlier that morning, which left two others injured.

Two people were originally reported shot during a break-in at Woodspring Apartments off Springwood Church Road near Whitsett, where police now speculate there was an exchange of gunfire with two intruders.

At about 10:35 a.m. Thursday, Burlington police responded to a report of a shooting at 7650 Woodspring Drive, where they found two people injured inside apartment 203 on the second floor.

The two men inside the apartment were 65-year-old Charlie Thompson, of the residence, who sustained a non-life threatening gunshot injury to the leg, and 51-year-old Curtis Vernell Harrelson, of Fairfax Drive in Burlington, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his upper and lower extremities, according to police.

They were both transported to Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, and their conditions were not immediately available. A possible motive or relationship between the two men in the apartment and the two intruders was unclear, according to authorities.

A witness reported seeing a black male suspect getting into the Durango and leaving after the shooting.

Thompson reported to officers that while in his residence, two subjects forced open the door, and once inside, began shooting at Harrelson and him.

Police believe a man who died of a gunshot wound in Greensboro on Thursday afternoon may be a suspect in a double shooting that occurred in Burlington earlier that morning, which left two others injured.

Two people were originally reported shot during a break-in at Woodspring Apartments off Springwood Church Road near Whitsett, where police now speculate there was an exchange of gunfire with two intruders.

At about 10:35 a.m. Thursday, Burlington police responded to a report of a shooting at 7650 Woodspring Drive, where they found two people injured inside apartment 203 on the second floor.

The two men inside the apartment were 65-year-old Charlie Thompson, of the residence, who sustained a non-life threatening gunshot injury to the leg, and 51-year-old Curtis Vernell Harrelson, of Fairfax Drive in Burlington, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his upper and lower extremities, according to police.

They were both transported to Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, and their conditions were not immediately available. A possible motive or relationship between the two men in the apartment and the two intruders was unclear, according to authorities.

A witness reported seeing a black male suspect getting into the Durango and leaving after the shooting.

Thompson reported to officers that while in his residence, two subjects forced open the door, and once inside, began shooting at Harrelson and him.

Around 12:25 p.m., Greensboro police responded to 1201 Huffine Mill Road, where someone had called 911 about a shooting victim, 38-year-old Edgar Elijah Standback, of Oak Street in Greensboro.

According to Greensboro Capt. Brian Cheek, when officers arrived on scene, they were told that a passerby located the shooting victim in a gray Dodge Durango, which was parked in the driveway of a home. Wood said people in the Durango had flagged down someone in the neighborhood and asked for assistance.

Standback was unconscious and unresponsive when Guilford County EMS arrived on the scene, and he died a short time later at Moses Cone Hospital, police said.

Wood said police are still working to confirm that Standback was connected to the apartment shooting. Cheek said police are unsure of the whereabouts of the possible second suspect. Thursday afternoon, Burlington police were executing a search warrant at the apartment, and Burlington and Greensboro police were conducting an investigation at the Huffine Mill Road scene, as well as with the victims at Moses Cone Hospital.

The apartment complex where the morning shooting occurred is about 500 yards from Burlington’s Springwood Park.

“There are so many things that we’re not sure about,” Cheek said. “This is a very fluid case, as you can imagine. A major shooting occurs in one county, then a short time later you have a shooting victim discovered in Greensboro, who later dies. It is an unusual occurrence.”

Cheek described the joint investigation between Greensboro and Burlington police as tedious.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Burlington Police Department at 229-3500 or CrimeStoppers at 229-7100.